How Many Pages Should a Resume Be
As a professional recruiter the size of a resume has never made any difference to me. If it is one or two or even three pages long it does not make much difference to me personally. Many of my clients have told me that they prefer one to two pages. Many hiring managers use a resume as a frame of reference. It would be uncommon for a hiring manager to read through your resume entirely. What is imporant is that a recruiter or hiring manager is able to read your resume. Sounds kinda funny but let me explain.
The biggest mistake I see candidates make is that the text on their resume is to small. Often times I'll open up a resume on my computer and I can't even read the text. I have to highlight the font and make it bigger. This changes the font and ends up messing up the format of the resume.This has become such a problem that if I get a resume like this I don't even read it. Image if you were a hiring manager or recruiter and you recieved a resume that you could not even read. Would you take that person seriously?
I would advise anyone who is putting together a resume to put it in a PDF format and then send it to yourself. Make sure you can read the text on your computer screen. When hiring mangers are viewing your resume they typically don't print it out and then read over it. They view the resume from their computer or lab top. If they view it from a lab top the text must be big enough. Sending your resume in a word document is fine but a PDF looks a lot more professional.
Brian Kirk
LC KIRK - Recruiting
